The present invention relates to treatment of contaminated groundwater, particularly to in situ treatment of contaminated groundwater, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for in situ treatment of contaminated groundwater by catalytic reductive dehalogenation facilitated by water electrolysis with an electrode pair or array.
Contamination of groundwater resources by halogenated organic compounds poses a significant environmental problem, of requiring some form of groundwater treatment to protect public health. These common groundwater contaminants include trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE). However, many conventional treatment technologies merely transfer the contaminant from one medium (water) to another medium (e.g., activated carbon), thus producing a secondary waste stream. Moreover, surface treatment systems can be cumbersome in that they often require a large surface footprint to house equipment. Recently, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,496 issued Jul. 26, 1994 to F. Rasouli, et al., a treatment technology has been developed involving catalytic reductive dehalogenation by hydrogen with a palladium catalyst in a system located above the ground surface.
The present invention addresses these issues, by providing a compact in situ groundwater treatment system based on chemical reduction by electrolytically-derived hydrogen for deployment within a pair or an array of well bores housing electrodes that conduct a DC current. In addition, contaminated water in fine-grained sediments between the electrodes will be drawn to the cathode well by electro-osmosis. All of the essential physical components of the treatment system are located within the well-bore (e.g., the hydrogen source and the catalyst bed), requiring only pipelines or hoses and a DC power supply to be present at the surface, thus having a minimal surface footprint and also not generating secondary waste streams.